Postmasters land funding for legal‎ clash over Post Office IT fiasco

Hundreds of sub-postmasters have secured funding for a class action lawsuit against the state-owned Post Office following an IT fiasco which left them accused of false accounting or theft. Sky News has learnt that Therium Capital Management, a specialist litigation funder, has agreed to back the ‎claim, which has attracted more than 550 participants to date. The case, which is being brought by the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance‎, relates to an allegedly faulty computer system which mistakenly showed their branches to be in financial deficit. Some of those affected by flaws in the Horizon accounting system were sent to prison for false accounting, with a substantial number losing their homes or being declared bankrupt as a consequence of their loss of income. The precise size of their compensation claim was unclear on Tuesday night, although it is certain to run to many millions of pounds. If the case goes to court, it is likely to embarrass the Government, which remains the sole shareholder in the Post Office even after privatising Royal Mail through a stock market flotation in 2013. The Post Office, which has a network of abut 11,000 branches, has just recorded its first annual profit in 16 years, but still receives hundreds of millions of pounds in public funding. Ministers are keen to see it become a more entrenched component of the banking industry as commercial lenders shrink their branch networks, with discussions taking place in recent weeks about securing support from big high street banks. The Post… [Read full story]

THE post office in Nettlebed is to close. The counter at the Spar shop at the BP petrol station off Port Hill will cease to exist from the end of February. That will be almost exactly two years after it relocated from the church hall in High Street. Owner MRH Retail, which runs 450 petrol stations across the country, says the counter service is no longer viable. The Post Office say it is still “committed” to providing a service in the village. In recent years the post office counters in Woodcote, Checkendon and Stoke Row have all closed. The Nettlebed closure was…... [Read more]

Delighted residents are celebrating the reopening of their village Post Office. Honington Camp Post Office will reopen on February 2. It is part of a ‘major modernisation programme’ by the Post Office across the country. The branch, in Green Lane, had served both personnel at RAF Honington as well as villagers since the 1940s. It closed in January 2016 when the postmaster resigned and the shop changed hands. Sebastian Jesuthasan, who took over the general store in January last year, has now been appointed the new postmaster and will run the service as a franchise. The ‘new-style’ Post Office will…... [Read more]

Nearly 800 sub-post offices have been closed secretly – despite Government pledges to keep branches open. Figures obtained after a Freedom of Information request show 776 branches have been shut “temporarily” – more than half of them for 18 months or more. Temporary closures, usually when a postmaster quits without being replaced, have shot up from 651 in March 2015. But they are not recorded in Post Office figures showing it has an 11,600-strong network which has shrunk from 19,000 in 2000. The Post Office insists the 776 branches will reopen when new postmasters are recruited. But Mark Baker of…... [Read more]

0 Have your say In London last week I was paying for stamps in a post office, having waited in a queue to do so for the longest possible time, to be met with, “Foreign money, eh?” and a suspicious turning from one side to the other of the crisp £20 note I’d just handed over. Then the very jolly postmaster – originally from Delhi, he later told me – turned to his wife, who was also serving customers, and let out a great pleased-with-himself laugh. “Foreign money indeed, for you see, it’s Scottish!” he cried, and she joined in…... [Read more]

PUBLISHED: 11:35 24 January 2018 | UPDATED: 11:40 24 January 2018 Grand opening of Spar Stores in Castle Acre, where the new Post Office has also reopened. Pictures: Sam Bisla Archant Residents have welcomed the reopening of a Post Office in a mid-Norfolk village. Grand opening of Spar Stores in Castle Acre, where the new Post Office has reopened. Pictures: Sam Bisla Castle Acre Post Office officially opened its doors to the public this week following a major project to demolish and rebuild the existing building to create a modern shop. Postmaster Rashpal Singh oversaw the work to increase the…... [Read more]